Maintaining Your New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions are known for being notoriously difficult to keep. We get lazy, change our priorities or don’t know how to manage our time effectively enough to get anything done.

With January of 2017 having already come and gone, if your seemingly strong resolutions have derailed somewhat, here are some of the tried and tested ways of getting them back on track.

Visualization has been cited as one of the most utilized strategies of successful people. Once you have visualized the journey and outcome of your goal it is easier to get up and do exactly that. Imagine each crucial step of your resolution and the exhilaration of finally hitting that mark. Decide on markers that will align you with this visualized success. Once each checkpoint on your way to success is clear, there will be far less chance of feeling stuck, unmotivated or lost.

Organization is key! Image via Oh So Pretty

Inspiration and genuine drive to achieve are some of the most important elements of success. There are many ways to seek out inspiration that will push you to keep working at your goal. Find an idol and aim to reach their lofty heights, create an inspiration board that will motivate you daily or find a friend to (healthily) compete with. It’s easy to get complacent, so remember to always find new ways of inspiring yourself so that the dream never feels exhausted or unattainable.

If you find it difficult to keep yourself accountable, list minor goals or use goal reviews at regular periods to see what’s working for you. Whether these are daily, weekly or monthly goals try to monitor which of these are you succeeding at and which are lagging. Once you figure out why you can set about altering your plans to work through each step.

It is a simple fact that we all like rewards and it is important to reward yourself. However, rewards must be thoughtful and productive in the long term. For example, when we comatose on the couch following a long day of hard work we dismiss this time wasting because we’ve earned it, right? It’s likely that you’re sacrificing hours of precious time somewhere in your day when you could be striving to hit that next micro goal. Create rewards or ‘punishments’ for each goal target to help push you to the end.

Make sure to take time to reward your hard work! Via Tumblr

Routine is key, its human nature. In fact, we thrive on it. Create a habit tracker to track how often you work on each resolution. If your aim is to get fit, set a goal of exercising three times a week, then increase that to four times once you’ve created a regular habit. Your body will come to naturally expect these sessions on a regular basis, and you may even start to feel strange when you miss them!

Lastly, but most importantly, do something that you’re passionate about. No goal should ever be easy, but it should most definitely matter to you, at least at the finish line.

It’s a long journey to succeed in anything, but something that is clear is that perseverance is key when taking on a new challenge. The year has only just begun, so there is plenty of time for us all to achieve great things in 2017.